Tuesday, September 2, 2008

An Cafe's new single Summer Dive will be released on September 10th. Finally it's been 6 months since their last release. I am really excited that An Cafe has a new song. They are one of my favorite Jrock bands and one of the few Jrock bands that I listen to just about every song by them. An Cafe has helped me be more focused on Oshare Kei. When all I ever used to listen to was Visual Kei. Granted it took me like 2 years after listening to An Cafe to be more focused on Oshare. But enough of the side note, on to my review.

The song as a whole I was a little caught off guard. His voice sounds even more Miku like, if that's even possible. I'm sure an An Cafe fan knows what I mean. But someone listening to them for the first time might have the same impression of them that I had when I listened to the song for the first time. "Woah that sounds kinda terrible and slightly annoying." Please note that, that was only at hearing it for the first time. But Miku does have a unique and distinct voice. And people might get turned off by songs like Super Rabbit or god forbid Duck no Magical Adventure is the first song they ever hear. In any case, I really like this song. It feels like something An Cafe would do, it feels believeable to me. It's very upbeat and friendly, the main reason I'm a fan. With a name like Summer Dive they probably wanted it be a song of the summer. But the video being released at the end of August makes it more like Fall Dive. I wonder if this single got pushed back. It did take 6 months so probably.

The video looks a little cheap to me considering their last three singles had fairly high budgets, or so it seems. The video focuses mostly around the volcalist Miku, like most music videos. I'd like to see more bassist love. But Kanon looks adorable around 3 minutes in so I'm happy. I am not entirely sure why they are floating in the air trying to catch, what looks like, a heart shaped peach.
Anyway, what stands out with each member to me.
Takuya- is sporting yet another dye job. This time it's a shade in the middle of the last to shades he had. I hope he stays with his hair, it's cute.
Miku- has amazing boots.
Kanon- always has the best outfits next to Miku
Yuuki- His clothes are always a bit much
Teruki- He doesn't really stand out he looks pretty much the same

Post Bou era of An Cafe is a little too commerical for the most part. In the earlier days of An Cafe it seemed like they were trying to lead towards VK or maybe be a mixture of VK and OK. But it changed to just Oshare really fast. It seems like Kanon is the only one who is still Visual, when you look at his clothes compaired to everyone elses. Style aside, post Bou era is different musicaly too. Kakusei Heroism, the first Bou-less single, was very anime like. No wonder it was the opening song for the anime Darker Than Black. And their songs since have been more commercial and anime like. Perhaps they are trying to break away from their indie lable Loop Ash to get signed to a major one. It's certainly a possibility.

Which makes me think, is that the real reason Bou left? He said he couldn't lie to himself or his fans anymore. Does he mean he pretened to want to go more commercial with the band when secretly he didn't. There's only one thing wrong with the senario. No one knows if these songs were written before or after Bou left. The two new members might have helped with the commerical feel. Takuya is only 18! And I never understood, at first, why Yuuki was in the band. Not until I saw videos with him in it did I even realize they used keyboards. XD

But I should stop before I write an entire page full. So until my next post, stay Nyappy! o(≧∀≦)o